Bilingualism has been in the center of scholarly debate for quite a while by now. Some specialists argue that bilingual children develop better cognitive skills, while there are some other experts, who strongly believe: bilingual children are much slower to come up with their first word. Some specialists believe that bilingual children have got difficulties when developing their speech apparatus and do not pronounce sounds as clearly and precisely as monolingual children. However, there are those, who, on the contrary, emphasize the role of bilingualism in formation of speech apparatus. These researchers say that there is evidence which indicates that bilingual children, due to learning how to pronounce a wider spectrum of sounds, are much more in command of their speech apparatus, than those, who know only one language and thus can only pronounce and recognize one, narrower, set of sounds. It is also widely believed, that language acquisition is something that allows people to better cope with the aging of their brain, to remain in good cognitive tonus. Thus, learning a second or a third language is good investment into one’s mental health during the late years of their lives. The aspects of the problem can result into a long list of scholarly discussions which are shaped around bilingualism, meanwhile, it is becoming more and more of a trend as the globalization is gaining momentum.
According to Marian and Shook (ND) nowadays the majority of the world’s population is already bilingual. The authors of this publication from the very start emphasize that bilinguals are much better at switching tasks. They are also much better than monolinguals at attention requiring tasks. Even very young kids, yet unable to speak, at seven months of age are capable to enjoy benefits of bilingualism: bilingual infants are better at adjusting to environmental peculiarities. However, as authors emphasize, there is one peculiarity: when a person uses one language the other languages they speak also remain active, so to speak, loaded into the brain. This means, that when recognizing a word, which a person hears, the brain will do it gradually. As the sounds of the word arrive in the brain, the brain tries to match these with the known words. Thus, if a person knows many languages, the recognition may take a longer while. Switching between languages during the process of speech also results in activating dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), while other research shows evidence, that there are other neurological changes which take place in the brain when switching between the known languages, as an example, it is worthwhile mentioning anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), bilateral supermarginal gyri, and left inferior frontal gyrus (left-IFG). The authors also indicate at the studies, which have shown that bilingualism also results in brain structure changes. For instance, acquisition in a second language results in higher gray matter volume in the left inferior parietal cortex.
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The authors also point at the improvements of people’s ability to study and comprehend information as a result of being bilingual. For instance, bilinguals are known to be much better at gaining a new language when compared with monolinguals, learning a second language. This is hypothetically explained by the influence, which bilingualism has got upon the ability of a person to fully concentrate on gaining the knowledge of the new language, while reducing the influence of interference of the other language or languages they already know. Lastly, the aging of the brain, the authors particularly emphasize, is becoming a much slower process in bilingual people than it is for the people who know only one language.
However, as indicated by Paradowski & Bator (2016), bilingualism has become subject to a lot of prejudice and stereotypes, which are widely believed not only by parents, but also by educators and health care specialists. For instance, it is widely believed that monolingualism is a norm, while bilingualism or multilingualism is an exception or even a deviation of this norm, another myth is that children, who are exposed to more than just one language are at high risk of various cognitive impairments, Halwachs (1993) also paid particular attention to the fact, that bilingualism has got significant influence upon personality. Understanding the concepts of another language is impossible without understanding the cultural framework within which they are formed. This is why multilingual people are much better at understanding different cultures and different world views. Such people become much more tolerable and understanding.
All this calls for increasing the level of understanding of bilingualism among parents and popularization of the trend among both parents and educators. It is reasonable to promote bilingualism in order to improve the results of learning among children and in order to prevent cognitive degradation among aging people and thus to improve the overall quality of their lives.
However, this investment is to be made early, and thus it is important to advocate for increasing the academic effort aimed at teaching languages at schools and pre-school facilities. It is important to do so not only on the level of one facility, a school or a kinder garden, but it is particularly important to work on the state level, developing programs and curricula, which would cover a bigger number of educational facilities and thus would involve more children. At the same time, it is critically important to work on educating more and better trained language teachers, who would not only possess good knowledge of the language taught, but would also be able to involve children into the learning and attract, earn their attention. It is also important to spread information about the use of bilingualism among parents for them to take early steps toward multilingualism of their children in their very early age.
- Halwachs, D.W. (1993). “Polysystem repertoire and identity”. Grazer Linguistische Studien. 39-40: 71–90
- Marian, Viorica & Anthony Shook. The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual. https://dana.org/Cerebrum/2012/The_Cognitive_Benefits_of_Being_Bilingual/
- Paradowski MB, Bator A (2016). “Perceived effectiveness of language acquisition in the process of multilingual upbringing by parents of different nationalities”. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism: 1–19.
